GOP and business groups are pressing House Republicans to support components of a sweeping climate plan proposed by Democrats last week.
House Republicans have accused Democratic leaders of a special climate change committee that released the plan of violating committee rules by issuing the proposal on a partisan basis, without including GOP members as originally expected.
But GOP policy advocates and allied groups say House Republicans should not let bitterness get in the way of working with Democrats, even in an election year, on concepts such as promoting pre-disaster mitigation, spending and tax credits for clean energy technologies, and modernizing the electricity grid.
“I sure hope the well hasn’t been that poisoned,” said Marty Durbin, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute. “There is a lot in here you can find consensus between parties and the business community. An election year is no excuse for not getting things done.”
Democrats’ 500-plus page plan to “solve the climate crisis,” compiled over a year and a half, includes a grab bag of aggressive policies. The agenda is a response to Democratic voters who have rated climate change a top area of concern.
It looks to tackle emissions in every sector of the economy, with a goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, an overarching target that Republicans have not endorsed. Democrats also aim to eliminate emissions from electricity by 2040, ensure all new cars sold are carbon-free by 2035, and immediately ban new drilling on public lands.
To reach those goals, they endorse comprehensive policy ideas such as a clean electricity mandate, which would require utilities to use more and more zero-carbon sources, and a carbon tax, ideas anathema to the majority of Republicans who prefer less federal government involvement.
But Durbin and others are encouraging Republican members of the climate committee, led by ranking member Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana, to release a report of their own, highlighting GOP priorities, some of which should overlap with Democrats.
“It’s fair to ask for Republicans to put out their vision of what needs to be done on climate,” said Heather Reams, executive director of the conservative group Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions. “We want to see Republicans put out their ideas.”
House Republican leadership, led by leader Kevin McCarthy, has already outlined a limited set of policies to combat climate change, in an effort to appease young voters tired of the party’s skepticism toward the problem.
The McCarthy agenda focuses on boosting technologies that capture carbon from fossil fuel plants, exporting natural gas to replace dirtier fuels overseas, and planting trees to absorb emissions.
But GOP outside groups are prodding Republicans to strengthen their plans. The groups say this could enable Republicans to counter attacks by Democrats who fault the GOP for proposing “window dressing” ideas.
“Republicans are rightfully frustrated with the partisan report rollout, but I also appreciate Democrats’ frustration with Republicans on climate policy generally,” said Devin Hartman, director of energy and environmental policy at the R Street Institute. “Where Republicans run the risk of criticizing this plan, they don’t have much to fall back on themselves other than planting trees and tax credits.”
Other conservative groups have been more critical of the Democrats’ plan and are discouraging Republicans from taking it seriously.
“It’s a ridiculously wasteful plan, and what’s even more ridiculous is that there are no plans to vote on it,” said Myron Ebell, director of the center for energy and environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Hartman said Republicans have a “golden opportunity” to release a plan that “empowers the private sector to cut emissions voluntarily, creatively, and cost-effectively,” instead of relying on federal mandates and spending.
Hartman referenced proposals in the Democratic report that Republicans should endorse. These include giving the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee more power to site transmission lines that can transport wind and solar from rural areas to larger consuming regions. Such lines are difficult to build because of landowner resistance at the state and local level.
Hartman also said Republicans should look to “transfer climate risk management from taxpayers to the private sector,” a broad idea supported by House Democrats who propose requiring public companies to report their financial exposure to climate change.
Joseph Majkut, a climate scientist at the center-right think tank Niskanen Center, noted the Democratic plan endorses other ideas that Republicans have embraced in previous legislation, including providing grants to build electric vehicle charging stations, expanding the “45Q” carbon capture tax credits, and boosting grid-scale energy storage.
The Democrats’ plan is also friendly to nuclear energy, a zero-carbon source that is divisive among environmentalists and progressives.
In the plan, Democrats allow nuclear to count as part of zero-carbon goals and propose policies to enhance research and deployment of smaller advanced nuclear technologies.
And the plan avoids the most divisive issues, such as specific prohibitions on fossil fuels, fracking, and pipelines.
“It’s not like you are dealing with an absolute contrast,” Majkut said. “There is quite a bit in this report because it is so comprehensive, that already has or could gain significantly more bipartisan support over time. For all the progress Republicans have made, they are not putting together this level of ambition on climate.”
